LibGuides: Catholic Social Thought and the Law: Research Assistance

Researching Catholic Social Thought and the Law

Conducting research on Catholic social thought and the law requires using multi-disciplinary resources. This page identifies helpful resources for such research. BC Law students preparing research papers or law review notes are encouraged to contact the research librarians using the Chat feature in the left bar here. We welcome the opportunity to work with you!

Catholic Dimensions of Legal Study: An Annotated Bibliography

Catholic University Columbus School of Law produces an excellent annotated bibliography of sources related to legal study and Catholic social thought.

Electronic Resources

Boston College offers access to the following databases for the BC community. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of Catholic social thought, a variety of databases are suggested here. Each link directs the researcher to the database description and coverage. Note: BC users will be prompted for their network credentials to access these sources.

Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Web of Science)
This database provides access to the bibliographic information and cited references to articles published in the premier arts and humanities journals. The index also covers individually selected, relevant items from over 7,000 journals in the sciences and social sciences.
Catholic Periodical and Literature Index
An index to periodicals, books, newspapers, and papal documents dealing expressly with the practice of Catholic faith and lifestyle.
Education Source
This database provides access to bibliographic information as well as full texts on scholarly research relating to all areas of education.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
The JSTOR project is a digital archive of fully searchable back issues of scholarly journals in anthropology, Asian Afro American studies, ecology, economics, education, finance, general science, history, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, sociology, and statistics. Coverage dates vary. (BC Access)
BC Access: Resource is available via computers connected to the BC network. Off-campus access requires a BC username and password, and is available to the BC Community only (current students, faculty and staff.)

Nexis Uni
This database offers full-text search capability for law reviews and news items.
Philosopher's Index
Coverage includes journal articles, books, contributions to anthologies, and book reviews. Over 480 journals are cited, from 38 countries. Subjects indexed include aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, logic, and metaphysics, as well as the philosophical aspects of related disciplines like education, political science, history, theology, and law.
Public Affairs Information Service International (PAIS)
An index to the literature of public policy, social policy, and the social sciences in general. Journal articles; books; government documents; statistical compilations; committee reports; directories; serials; reports of public, intergovernmental, and private organizations; and most other forms of printed literature from all over the world are indexed.
Social Sciences Citation Index
A multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. A subfile of the Web of Science database, it indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals.
Sociological Abstracts
Contains information from approximately 1,809 journals in 30 different languages which includes bibliographic citations and abstracts (from sociological abstracts and SOPODA) and enhanced dissertation citations (from Dissertation Abstracts International).

Social Science Research Network/SSRN This link opens in a new window
The Social Science Research Network/SSRN is composed of specialized research networks in the social sciences which index submitted abstracts on accounting, economics, financial economics, legal scholarship, and management (including negotiation and marketing). (Web)
Web: Resource is freely available via the Web. BC Law faculty can sign up to receive customized email alerts for SSRN institution- and subject-based eJournals.

Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church
Throughout the course of her history, and particularly in the last hundred years, the Church has never failed, in the words of Pope Leo XIII, to speak “the words that are hers” with regard to questions concerning life in society. Continuing to expound and update the rich patrimony of Catholic social doctrine, Pope John Paul II has for his part published three great Encyclicals — Laborem Exercens, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis and Centesimus Annus — that represent fundamental stages of Catholic thought in this area. For their part, numerous Bishops in every part of the world have contributed in recent times to a deeper understanding of the Church's social doctrine. Numerous scholars on every continent have done the same.

Using SSRN to uncover new trends

SSRN is the Social Science Research Network, a database focused on social science issues. Authors contribute both published papers and forthcoming works to SSRN, making it a valuable resource for students seeking to discover new developments in a field. Users may search the SSRN database at no cost. There are a number of articles on the topic of Catholic social thought and teaching in the SSRN database.

Catholic Social Thought and the Law

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Researching Catholic Social Thought and the Law

Catholic Dimensions of Legal Study: An Annotated Bibliography

Electronic Resources

Using SSRN to uncover new trends